POLITICO 44

Bone-tired and facing a tough political landscape at home, House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey announced Wednesday that he won’t seek reelection, ending a 41-year House career stamped by his unique talent and tempestuousness.

Rarely does a committee chairman of such power just walk away, and Obey’s decision is a blow to Democrats and marks the passing of one of the last major leaders of the 1970’s reforms that reshaped the modern House.

“I am ready to turn the page, and frankly, I think that my district is ready for someone new to make a fresh start,” Obey said in an afternoon press conference in his committee’s meeting room.

Despite poor poll numbers at home, he insisted that he could win reelection in November but admitted he feared another reapportionment fight in the next Congress and a shift in the public mood against the aggressive public investments which have been his trademark.

“I do not want to be in the position as chairman of the Appropriations Committee of producing and defending lowest common denominator legislation that is inadequate to that task,” Obey said, “And given the mood of the country, that is what I would have to do if I stayed.”

The chairman’s retirement is not entirely a surprise, but as of late Tuesday night, Obey’s staff had insisted he was running aggressively and had hired campaign staff. Only Wednesday morning did a person close to him confirm to POLITICO that he was leaving, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was only informed then as well.

Elected in 1969 when he was just 30, Obey played a leading role in the anti-war and reform movement of the House in the 1970’s. He was closely associated with the late Rep. Richard Bolling (D-Mo.), who provided the intellectual framework for many of the changes then that empowered the Democratic caucus and role of the speaker. And inside the House, Obey paid a political price for having been as aggressive as he was in pursuing rules changes and ethics reforms.

Appropriations was his power base, and he has been a close ally of Pelosi, who came up through the same panel before rising in Democratic leadership. Obey’s departure follows on the death of Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) this winter, a second Pelosi ally and veteran of the powerful committee.

Indeed, the death of Murtha — and a second Obey associate — former Rep. Charles Wilson of Texas — may have influenced the chairman’s decision. In his statement Wednesday, Obey alluded to both men and said pointedly that he will soon be only four years short of the age they were when they died within days of one another in February.

“I have to ask myself how I want to spend the time I have left,” he said. “All I do know is that there has to be more to life that explaining the ridiculous, accountability destroying rules of the Senate to confused, angry, and frustrated constituents.”

The passage of health care reform in March — together with a package of higher education provisions — proved a handy pivot point. “I have been waiting for that moment for 41 years and its arrival — finally —made all the frustrations of public life worth it,” he said of the health care bill.

But Obey’s frustration with the White House has been no secret either, and his unhappiness helps explain the repeated delays in the House in approving new funding for the war in Afghanistan. Obey himself is torn about President Barack Obama’s commitment of increased U.S. troops at a time of continued economic troubles at home. And after first setting a Memorial Day deadline, Democrats admit privately that Congress may not complete action on the package until the July Fourth recess.